


Unclear Reflections

by SophieRipley



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Confusion, Crushes, Frustration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 18:00:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7724326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieRipley/pseuds/SophieRipley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young Judy Hopps is at her boarding school, a very unique school indeed, full of magic and wonder. In her second term, she finds a curious mirror stashed away in an out of the way classroom, and what it shows captivates and baffles her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unclear Reflections

The classroom was empty save for a pile of desks along one wall, a single student, and one mirror along the other wall.  The room was dark utterly, save for a thin line of candlelight from the corridor and a silvery glimmer of moonlight coming from the undrawn windows.  There was not a solitary sound in the room, save the infinitesimally quiet breathing of a very small, very young rabbit.

Judy Hopps was twelve years old.  She had been at this boarding school for a term and a half already, and had taken to exploring the castle in her spare time.  It held many wonders, the ancient magical place, and this unremarkable classroom held but one.  The mirror was as strange as the classroom was not:  it was framed in inscribed gold with clawed feet and a highly polished looking surface.  The inscription upon it was a language Judy knew not, and she whispered it to herself in the darkness with reverence.

“ _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.”_ The words sounded like so much nonsense, but to the young bunny they nonetheless held so much reverence.

Even in the dimness of the hour of midnight, the kitten could clearly see what the reflection held, and it was not reality.  She wondered, could it tell the future?  Did it delight in showing things to frighten and confuse those who gazed into its deranged depths?  Young Judy could not divine the answers, despite being in the house of minds.  She gripped her blue and bronze colored tie in frustration without turning her gaze from the silvered surface, her delicate face pinched into a frown.

 _Perhaps,_ she thought, _it wants to drive me mad?_

Judy had no way to know what the venerable mirror did.  She was but a child, and had not the benefit of a mentor in this.  She could not know that the Mirror of Erised wanted not to drive her mad or frighten her or anything else such as that; it merely gazed into her heart and reflected the truest, deepest image thereof.

Three years ago, Judy Hopps wanted nothing more than to become a police officer.  It was truly the deepest desire in her heart, the most desperate wish of the nine year-old doe.  Three years ago if she had happened upon this mirror, she would have seen nothing more or less than that:  herself, in uniform, badge shining and pure.

Judy Hopps was no longer nine years old, and things had changed.  In the mirror before her she saw no police blues, no brass badge, no utility belt and no service cap.  She could see two figures only:  herself, wearing the blue and bronze of her house, sitting upon the floor; and a fox, the very same she butted heads with in shared classes, sitting behind her, arms wrapped around her torso and rust-red fur burning in a halo about her head, his own head laying about her shoulders and nuzzling her neck, the green and silver of his own house tie visible between Judy’s fingers.  It was not a scene of horror; Judy had not the words for it, but if she had she would have called it _adoration_.  Mutual and blinding.

Judy’s little heart beat frantically in her chest as she gazed desperately at the mirror, her lavender eyes locked on the figment’s brilliant green ones, and she tried and failed to understand.  For many long hours she sat before that mirror, until the sun rose in the windows and she slumped over in exhaustion.  She did not understand, and was compelled to.  She would return to the classroom to gaze longingly and frustrated into the mirror for the next two evenings, to identical results.

On the third, the mirror was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to play around a bit with relative ages here for it to work, but I figured that would work out well enough. If I return to this AU at all in future, I'll be maintaining a similar age difference, again to facilitate the story. I hope this is received well! If you'd like more from this AU, leave a review! If not, leave a review anyway! ;) Any constructive feedback is welcome.


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